First, they gave us special glow-in-the-dark orange trampoline socks with sticky spots on the bottom so we wouldn’t slip.

Then we headed back to a room as big as a football field filled with trampolines; each was about 7′ x 10′ and they were separated by foot-wide padded bumpers.

We each chose a trampoline section and followed the instructor as she led us through a lot of different cardio and calisthenic-type exercises.

I was kind of nervous because I haven’t been on a trampoline since my sophomore year in high school. During gym class, I poked my knee in my eye (despite the teacher’s repeated warnings to tuck our knees to our chest) and had a black (then yellow, then green, then purple) eye for over a week. (Back then, girls wore wild eye shadow colors and I matched the “good” eyelid to the bruised one every day so they’d match.)

My goal for this class was not to break any bones, have visible bruising or leave by ambulance!

We started with simple jumping — which made my legs feel like jelly for the first few minutes. It got easier, though.

The teacher led us through all kinds of progressively more difficult jumps, lifting feet in the air and from side of side, knees to chest, and more. (I, however, kept to the steady, low jumping, waving my hands and arms now and then).

My friend was a bit more daring!

Later, we ran around the perimeter of the trampoline room, taking a few steps in each section, jumping over the bumper and running several steps through the next section, jumping over the bumper, etc. That was kind of fun.

Cheryl and I jogged on the inside track while the more experienced participants ran near the edge of the room. One woman actually jumped from the trampoline sideways onto the wall and bounced off of it back onto the trampoline periodically; it was amazing!

We used big plastic balls on a lot of the exercises, balancing our hands and feet on them in to do various plank-type holds.

During one set, we partnered up and stood back to back with the ball between us, simultaneously squatting down and rising up.

We also did various interval exercises, each person working her way down each section of trampoline in the row we were in, changing up every minute or so and moving on to the next section. Then we Army-crawled from the far side of the room on the bumpers back to the original spot.

We did several exercises with white paper pates under our feet. For one, we placed our hands on the bumper and our feet on the trampoline, sliding them in and out to the right side and the left side, then did another moving our feet forward and backward. The plates made the surface surprisingly slick, so you had to really control your muscles.

One of the most memorable exercises was lying on our backs, rolling backward and forward to get momentum, then springing up to rise to our feet. (It helped to cross our feet at the ankles.)

I think it was after that one when Cheryl looked at me and whispered, “I hope we can walk tomorrow.”

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I started a personal blog to share my thoughts and bring a lift to other people. Reading a "lifestyle" blog can be like enjoying a letter from a friend or indulging in a good conversation. It connects you with another human being who has the same types of joys, doubts, thoughts, questions and problems as you do. I hope that reading my blog will brighten your day!

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